Safety For Sarah: Local 600 Launches Own App For Reporting Unsafe Sets

Now this is quite interesting. Some of you may know that Hamilton Nolan at Gawker has been writing a long-running series about safety violations in reality television. Now the union is pushing back; of course, most reality shows are ununionized, but here’s a pressing reason to change that.

The death of Midnight Rider camera assistant Sarah Jones continues to spark a safety movement in Hollywood. Today the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) launched their own “ICG Safety” app designed to help members anonymously report unsafe working conditions on film and TV sets across the world. Jones, who was killed at the age of 27 in February in a train accident on set in Georgia, was an ICG member.

Like the “Set Safety” app released earlier this month by a group of anonymous industry professionals, the ICG’s app provides access to safety bulletins and guidelines as well as a quicklist of industry safety hotlines. Users can report safety concerns without revealing their identities, which is particularly essential in the production industry where crew members are often afraid of losing their jobs if they speak out.